Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
This collection of new Pinot Noirs raises the bar for the variety. It rates with the best showing from the best Pinot makers in California, and this outstanding wine comes out at the head of an altogether remarkable class. It is at once deep and profoundly fruity with a lavish display of optimally ripe cherries and perfectly fit oak, and, although high in extract and muscle, it is uncannily well-balanced and never less than brilliantly controlled. For all of its show-stopping richness, it is still far from its best, and only the sure promise of better with time keeps us from savoring it now.
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Wine Spectator
Dense aromas of tar, gravel and fresh earth join chunky, chewy dark berry flavors. Deeply concentrated.—Kosta Browne non-blind vertical (March 2011). Drink now through 2019. 727 cases made.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.